Been taking your time? Paying attention? Good. Now pay attention because this next part is critical. It determines whether or not you're a pro or a scrub. Speed is very important when you go about doing all this stuff, but don't screw up because you're trying to go too fast. That happened to a corp-mate of mine, recently and I had to walk him through some things. There's no telling how long he would've been failing if he hadn't learned this very important lesson.
The lesson, as handed down to me will now be handed down to you: slow is smooth and smooth is fast.
Getting all this stuff done quickly is important, but getting accurate intel is paramount! That means "most important" for you illiterate retards. So go slow and get it right. The speed will come on its own.
Now let's get down to business.
The next thing you want to do is find all the enemy strongholds - all their player-owned stations (POS's) - and get eyes on them. This requires a lot of dscan voodoo, so pay attention. I apologize ahead of time for the boring step by step, but I don't have any pictures at the moment. I might add them later.
"Uh, dscan? You mean drop probes, right?"
No, you little pustule! That doesn't mean drop probes. That comes later.
Idiot.
Dscan is the directional scanner. Open up your system map and activate your tactical overlay. Hit the scan button on your dscan. Anything you see on that dscan will be inside that 15AU radius on your system map. Those other planets outside the 15AU radius on your system map (if there are any) still need to be checked out though, so go ahead and warp to that planet's customs office at 100km and do another dscan. Repeat for every planet outside your dscan range on your first dscan (the scan you performed upon first entering the system).
What you're looking for are active POS's. You can determine whether or not they're active by looking for Force Fields. Now, just because a POS doesn't have a Force Field up doesn't mean it's inactive. It could be a good trap. It could be that the owner is just now setting the POS up. It would be an AWOX in progress. In all of those cases you will likely see ships on dscan so always be on the lookout and maintain your situational awareness.
For instructional purposes, let's say you've got an active POS around planet III. You warp to that planet's customs office at 100km. Keep your system map and tactical overlay up because you're going to need them.
Now that you're at the customs office you can see that your tactical overlay conveniently divides the planetary system up into quadrants (that would be four 90-degree sections for those of you who are mathematically challenged). Set your dscan for 180-degrees and align your field of view with along one of the axes of the dscan (look down a row of AU ranges).
Activate your dscan and rotate your field of view 90-degrees to the right until you find what quadrant the POS is in. Once you determine the quadrant you want to reduce the angle of your dscan until you single out the specific moon that the POS is at. If you are unable to determine a specific moon even at the narrowest dscan angle (5 degrees) then play with the dscan range until you figure out which moon the POS is at.
This is very easy when there are only a few moons and sometimes you can go really fast through the narrowing down process, but rest assured, this process will never fail you.
When you do get a bead on that POS you want to be aware of those pesky warp bubbles that can really screw up your day. If you've followed simple instructions from Scouting Like a Pro I, then you've got them on your overview tab and they already show up on your dscan. Now, if you see a warp bubble you also want to check for containers, which likely indicates the presence of a decloak trap when seen together.
For you baby wormholers, a decloak trap is a warp disruption bubble lined with containers. The bubble sucks people into it who are warping onto the grid and the containers decloak any and all ships that land within 2000m of them. The POS will then target and destroy your ship.
Luckily, there are ways to minimize the risk of certain death from decloak traps and since you're reading "Scouting Like a Pro" and not "Scouting Like a Bear" I will share with you my methods.
#1. If you've got great big balls like No'Wai you can scout in a strategic cruiser, which gives you the ability to fit the Warp Disruption Nullifier subsystem. This will make you invulnerable to the drag effect of the warp bubble and render most decloak traps ineffective.
#2. You can also simply stay in your Helios and warp to the moon at the standard 100km. You will get sucked into the warp bubble and will likely get decloaked, but because your ship is very small the POS will not be able to target you before you can put all cans at a distance and cloak up. If you opt for this method don't activate your MWD, because that greatly increases your signature radius, making it easier for the POS to target you.
#3. There is also dumb luck.
Keep in mind that these measures only reduce the risk. They do not eliminate it. Some traps are very clever. I recently encountered one that made use of freight containers, which don't show up on dscan, so I warped to the POS thinking I'd get sucked into a bubble and could slow boat out of it at my leisure. When I got onto the grid I was not happy to see a bubble full of containers waiting for my beloved Proteus.
"Wow, Malception! That loss must've really sucked."
Negro, please! I Scout Like a Pro. Utilizing method #3 I evaded that feeble trap and went on to gather valuable intelligence on my target.
Once you're on grid with the POS you need to figure out who owns it. Check out the owner's kill board. Get names of any pilots. Copy all the dscan information and paste it into Dingo's. That tool will organize all the information for you and provide you with a link in order to share the intel. Make sure you relay everything to the FC.
I think that's about all I'm going to put in this post. It may not look like a lot, but it's something that takes a lot of practice, so while you're out and about perfecting these skills I'll be writing up the next post.
Check in later to find out about dropping those probes.
The lesson, as handed down to me will now be handed down to you: slow is smooth and smooth is fast.
Getting all this stuff done quickly is important, but getting accurate intel is paramount! That means "most important" for you illiterate retards. So go slow and get it right. The speed will come on its own.
Now let's get down to business.
The next thing you want to do is find all the enemy strongholds - all their player-owned stations (POS's) - and get eyes on them. This requires a lot of dscan voodoo, so pay attention. I apologize ahead of time for the boring step by step, but I don't have any pictures at the moment. I might add them later.
"Uh, dscan? You mean drop probes, right?"
No, you little pustule! That doesn't mean drop probes. That comes later.
Idiot.
Dscan is the directional scanner. Open up your system map and activate your tactical overlay. Hit the scan button on your dscan. Anything you see on that dscan will be inside that 15AU radius on your system map. Those other planets outside the 15AU radius on your system map (if there are any) still need to be checked out though, so go ahead and warp to that planet's customs office at 100km and do another dscan. Repeat for every planet outside your dscan range on your first dscan (the scan you performed upon first entering the system).
What you're looking for are active POS's. You can determine whether or not they're active by looking for Force Fields. Now, just because a POS doesn't have a Force Field up doesn't mean it's inactive. It could be a good trap. It could be that the owner is just now setting the POS up. It would be an AWOX in progress. In all of those cases you will likely see ships on dscan so always be on the lookout and maintain your situational awareness.
For instructional purposes, let's say you've got an active POS around planet III. You warp to that planet's customs office at 100km. Keep your system map and tactical overlay up because you're going to need them.
Now that you're at the customs office you can see that your tactical overlay conveniently divides the planetary system up into quadrants (that would be four 90-degree sections for those of you who are mathematically challenged). Set your dscan for 180-degrees and align your field of view with along one of the axes of the dscan (look down a row of AU ranges).
Activate your dscan and rotate your field of view 90-degrees to the right until you find what quadrant the POS is in. Once you determine the quadrant you want to reduce the angle of your dscan until you single out the specific moon that the POS is at. If you are unable to determine a specific moon even at the narrowest dscan angle (5 degrees) then play with the dscan range until you figure out which moon the POS is at.
This is very easy when there are only a few moons and sometimes you can go really fast through the narrowing down process, but rest assured, this process will never fail you.
When you do get a bead on that POS you want to be aware of those pesky warp bubbles that can really screw up your day. If you've followed simple instructions from Scouting Like a Pro I, then you've got them on your overview tab and they already show up on your dscan. Now, if you see a warp bubble you also want to check for containers, which likely indicates the presence of a decloak trap when seen together.
For you baby wormholers, a decloak trap is a warp disruption bubble lined with containers. The bubble sucks people into it who are warping onto the grid and the containers decloak any and all ships that land within 2000m of them. The POS will then target and destroy your ship.
Luckily, there are ways to minimize the risk of certain death from decloak traps and since you're reading "Scouting Like a Pro" and not "Scouting Like a Bear" I will share with you my methods.
#1. If you've got great big balls like No'Wai you can scout in a strategic cruiser, which gives you the ability to fit the Warp Disruption Nullifier subsystem. This will make you invulnerable to the drag effect of the warp bubble and render most decloak traps ineffective.
#2. You can also simply stay in your Helios and warp to the moon at the standard 100km. You will get sucked into the warp bubble and will likely get decloaked, but because your ship is very small the POS will not be able to target you before you can put all cans at a distance and cloak up. If you opt for this method don't activate your MWD, because that greatly increases your signature radius, making it easier for the POS to target you.
#3. There is also dumb luck.
Keep in mind that these measures only reduce the risk. They do not eliminate it. Some traps are very clever. I recently encountered one that made use of freight containers, which don't show up on dscan, so I warped to the POS thinking I'd get sucked into a bubble and could slow boat out of it at my leisure. When I got onto the grid I was not happy to see a bubble full of containers waiting for my beloved Proteus.
"Wow, Malception! That loss must've really sucked."
Negro, please! I Scout Like a Pro. Utilizing method #3 I evaded that feeble trap and went on to gather valuable intelligence on my target.
Once you're on grid with the POS you need to figure out who owns it. Check out the owner's kill board. Get names of any pilots. Copy all the dscan information and paste it into Dingo's. That tool will organize all the information for you and provide you with a link in order to share the intel. Make sure you relay everything to the FC.
I think that's about all I'm going to put in this post. It may not look like a lot, but it's something that takes a lot of practice, so while you're out and about perfecting these skills I'll be writing up the next post.
Check in later to find out about dropping those probes.
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